Monday, June 20, 2016

CIA and HUMINT: Codename TRIGON

Human intelligence is dangerous work. The CIA recently published a historical account of Aleksandr Ogorodnik, an asset it recruited from the Soviet Union. The CIA assigned him the codename TRIGON. He supposedly provided the U.S. with valuable intelligence. But his work with the CIA ultimately cost him his life.

On June 22, 1977, Aleksandr Ogorodnik killed himself with a CIA-supplied suicide pill after the KGB arrested him based on information initially provided by a mole within the Agency. Just over three weeks later, CIA officer Martha (Marti) Peterson—unaware of Aleksandr’s death—was seized in a KGB ambush while servicing a dead drop in Moscow.

The streets of Moscow were one of the most important, and dangerous, battlefields of the Cold War. American intelligence officers like Marti worked with assets like Aleksandr in the shadows to collect Soviet secrets. The Soviets, in turn, closely watched all foreign nationals and their own citizens for signs of espionage. ...